Big Horn girls score twice, become first conference opponent to score against Locomotives
By Jack Reaney SENIOR EDITOR
Both Lone Peak High School varsity soccer teams tied Laurel High School on Saturday, beginning with a scoreless contest between the boys.
The game’s intensity and physicality seemed to increase constantly—one player from each team earned a yellow card within a one-minute span in the game’s final moments—and players walked off the field frustrated by the 0-0 result.
“Obviously, we’ll take the tie over the loss,” head coach Coppola said after the game. He saw encouraging progress in terms of the Big Horns’ ball movement, but said the team still needs to work on finishing its scoring opportunities.
“And we just didn’t do that today,” he said. “And that’s, I think, the frustrating part. When you leave that many goals on the doorstep, and you tie.”
Coppola urged his forwards during the game to get in the box when a teammate looked to cross the ball near the goal. On a handful of occasions, Lone Peak players sent a pass across the middle, but teammates weren’t in position to finish. The team will work on positional discipline in its five remaining games.
Scoreless ties don’t happen without strong defense, and Coppola praised junior goalkeeper Oliver McGuire and sophomore defender Dudley Davis for locking down Lone Peak’s turf.
“Oliver had a hell of a game, again,” he said—on Sept. 12, against division-leading Billings Central Catholic High School, McGuire allowed only two goals, one being a penalty kick, in the Big Horns 2-0 loss. He made at least two remarkable stops on Sept. 21 to keep a zero on the scoreboard.
“Dudley [Davis] has been super consistent in the center back, and we really appreciate his leadership. He’s only a sophomore, but he’s really stepping up, keeping us intact in the defensive end,” Coppola said.
In the game’s final seconds, Davis cleared a loose ball in front of the Big Horns’ goal to prevent a potential game-winning shot by the Locomotives.
Coppola credited freshmen Steen Mitchell and Dom DiTullio for coming off the bench and applying pressure on offense late in the game, but he said the team simply needs to score more goals.
Against East Helena on Sept. 19, the Big Horns scored 10 goals—which could prove valuable for goal differential in case of a tiebreaker in the standings. But they’ve scored nine goals in all the other games combined.
“I think the guys know they could have played better… we’re just gonna move on. There’s no sense in holding on to this game, you know, it didn’t really affect us negatively,” Coppola said.
The Big Horns now have three ties, in addition to their win-loss record of 3-1. As of Saturday, they maintained second place in the eastern division, which would earn them a playoff berth—of course, the team still has six games to play in the regular season, which ends with a rematch at Laurel on Oct. 12.
Coppola said they’re fully expecting to make a run for the playoffs.
“We’re still sittin’ pretty good,” he said. “… We’re right there in the middle, we’re right there where we need to be.”
Girls jump ahead early, finish in tie
After 80 minutes of goal-free soccer, the girls game followed a different script.
Four minutes in, junior captain Maddie Wilcynski ripped a left-footed shot to score a bar-down goal from outside the box, giving the Big Horns a 1-0 lead.
In short order, freshman keeper Marley Chapin charged a long through-ball to stop the Locomotives from tying the score, and just two minutes after Wilcynski’s goal, the Big Horns gained another off the left foot of junior Harper Morris.
“Keep it up,” Morris shouted after high-fiving teammates and celebrating a sudden 2-0 lead. Toward the end of the first half, Morris squared another shot off the left post, but the score remained 2-0 entering halftime.
Team captains Wilcynski and junior Hana Mittelstaedt pointed out that the Big Horns’ goals were the only goals scored against the Laurel girls this season by a conference opponent. Unfortunately, the team was unable to keep up their early momentum on offense.
The Locomotives pushed on attack in the second half, and the Big Horns shifted their focus to defense, but still allowed a pair of goals. Laurel tied the game, 2-2, and it ended there.
“The Laurel game was a tough one,” head coach Kim Dickerson wrote in an email to EBS. “The players came out on fire setting the tone and playing some beautiful soccer. Games like that one, we can take it, we learn from it, and we move on.”
The girls shift their focus to another strong opponent in Billings Central, against whom they lost, 2-1, on Sept. 12.
